Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to assembly of awards trophies, specifically methods for friction fitting trophy columns to bases.
Background
Manufacturers and wholesalers need to be able to ship component parts to retailers and other customers that are easily assembled, customizable and efficient to ship but fully assembled trophies are awkward and expensive to ship and are not easily customized. Typical conventional trophy assemblies consists of a base, a lower lid, a column, an upper lid and a figure or other top structure symbolic of the achievement or award. Larger trophy assemblies may comprise additional columns mounted in a way to create multi-level trophies with the figure on the top with other decorative elements elsewhere in the assembly. Historically, trophies utilizing columns have been assembled using threaded rods that run through the base, the lower lid, the column, and the upper lid, and then attach to the figure using a coupler. A nut is then used to secure the base to the rod and compress the base, lower lid, column, upper lid, and figure together, thereby creating a rigid assembly.
The conventional threaded rod design has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the nut, threaded rod, coupler, and lids (the “hardware”) contribute more than about 50% of the number of components of a typical small trophy. This impacts the cost and weight of the final assembly, increases inventory and freight expenses, and requires substantial space for inventory. More importantly, assembling even the smallest of such trophies is labor intensive, typically requiring many discrete steps, including rotations and alignments of components. Accordingly, the average awards dealer must incur high labor costs, often necessitating the hiring of part time employees and payment for numerous overtime hours, to repeatedly complete this laborious process in order to have a sufficient number of awards ready in time for awards ceremonies during peak season. These disadvantages arise primarily from the structural design being based on threaded rods and compression for structural rigidity.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,353,496 (incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) discloses a trophy assembly having a base with an integral lower clip structure, a column with interior column ribs, in which the lower clip is adapted (as by slots) to engage the column ribs, thereby joining the base and the column when the column is placed over the clip and rotated. The patent discloses a plastic base for use in a trophy assembly having a base and a column, wherein the base has in integral clip structure adapted to engage slots on the interior surface of the column. Further, the patent discloses a similar means to attach a figure (or other adornment or structure) to the top of a tubular column for use in a trophy assembly. The patent is restricted to having a connecting structure made as an integral part of a plastic base. U.S. published application 2009/0146025, for which U.S. Pat. No. 8,353,496 is a continuation-in-part application discloses basically the same system but with the attachment structure being a non-integral component attached to the base by a variety of means. The disclosed system requires an integral connection of the attachment means to the base it is limited to plastic bases and plastic bases represents only about 45% of the market.
What is needed is an inexpensive easily customizable, means to assembly trophies to allow easy customization and to provide minimum volume for shipping. The present invention is such a means.